FURIOUS Martin Canning has told his Hamilton players they are playing for their futures – as well as his own.

Canning has cited Hamilton’s 4-1 defeat at the hands of League Two side Annan in Saturday’s Scottish Cup encounter as the nadir of his seventeen-year professional career, but the humiliating result is just the latest in a desperate run of form that has yielded just one draw and five defeats from their last six matches in all competitions.

Despite enjoying the backing of the club’s owners in the past, particularly when his side went on a thirteen-game run without a win immediately after he took over from Alex Neil, Canning certainly isn’t wet behind the ears, and he knows that his position will come under close scrutiny if Hamilton’s fortunes don’t improve soon.

He said: “I’m still angry. I probably will be for the next five years! I’ll always be having a wee think back to this.

“It’s a low point for me in my career. As a player I’ve been on the opposite end playing for a wee club where we’ve beaten a bigger club, but I’d never been on the end of it before. I don’t like it. I’m a winner and I want to win and enjoy it.

“There are occasions when [criticising the players] is appropriate and I think it still sometimes has to be done – and I did it here on Monday after watching that video because it just wasn’t good enough.

“I’m not going to accept that – as a player, a manager or a coach or anybody associated with this club. We shouldn’t be going down to Annan and losing 4-1. So there was definitely anger aired on Monday.

“I speak with the owners weekly – sometimes daily, by telephone – about different things that we’re doing so we’ve chatted about this. Obviously, from my point of view, we need to win games. Results are the most important thing.

“They’ve supported me to the hilt and as best they can and that’s appreciated. But, from my point of view, I’ve been involved in football for a long time and I know that it’s results that we need. If we don’t start picking up wins then that’s got to be an issue. So I’m putting pressure on myself to turn things round.

“When you look at the performance on Saturday – and the couple of weeks before – there have been a couple who haven’t performed to the levels I’d expect of them. The performances at times haven’t been good enough. We’ve conceded far too many soft goals which I’m really disappointed more than angry with.

“We’ve gone through it, we’ve analysed it and talked about it and the guys know it’s not acceptable.”